Ladies and Gentleman, The Phantom Webmaster and myself have got together this year to bring you something a little different this year. Pray silence for the (drumroll, provided by none other than TPW…)

The Phantom Advent Calendar!!!

Created as a tribute to the mighty Royal Greenwich Time, we have lovingly hand-crafted each window to be as we think the GT team would have made it had they had the vast time and cash resources of Phantom Towers…

So sit back and enjoy twenty-five windows, each a charming Christmas vignette, with a cheery Greenwich theme running through.

Sigh at the sizzling full colour!

Squeal in delight at the minute detail!

Swoon at the fabulous costumery!

Wonder who might be behind that curtain each day!

Marvel at the time and effort each one of these exquisite frames must have taken!*.

Goggle at the sheer Photoshop mastery!

Dream of the delights within!

So without further ado – turn the page, draw back the magic curtain…who will behind it today? Can you guess?

Ladies and Gentleman, The Phantom Webmaster and myself have got together this year to bring you something a little different this year. Pray silence for the (drumroll, provided by none other than TPW…)

The Phantom Advent Calendar!!!

Created as a tribute to the mighty Royal Greenwich Time, we have lovingly hand-crafted each window to be as we think the GT team would have made it had they had the vast time and cash resources of Phantom Towers…

So sit back and enjoy twenty-five windows, each a charming Christmas vignette, with a cheery Greenwich theme running through.

Sigh at the sizzling full colour!

Squeal in delight at the minute detail!

Swoon at the fabulous costumery!

Wonder who might be behind that curtain each day!

Marvel at the time and effort each one of these exquisite frames must have taken!*.

Goggle at the sheer Photoshop mastery!

Dream of the delights within!

So without further ado – turn the page, draw back the magic curtain…who will behind it today? Can you guess?

I hand you over to Bob for some quite disturbing news on Lovells Wharf:

The developers of the site called Greenwich Wharves are proposing some substantial changes to the development:

increasing the total square metres from 94,825 by 12,695 sq.m – anincrease of 30%

increase the number of new homes from 667 to 911 – about 37% increase

change in the height of the buildings up to 13 storeys on the riverfront

reduction in the commercial and office accommodation – no details provided about what or how much is reduced

The commercial and office accommodation were an important factor in the consented plans. Before consent there had been an outrageous original proposal for very tall buildings. The developers now appear to be trying to claw back what they were originally refused.

There are consultation meetings on Tuesday 11th December from 5pm to 9pm, and on Wednesday 12th December from 2pm to 9pm, at Rothbury Hall on Azof Street. Locals have had brochures posted through their doors, but I don’t know how widely they’ve been distributed within the rest of Greenwich.

The changes that have been outlined increase the living density by 30% with concomitant increases in the height of the buildings, but reduce the infrastructure that was in the current proposal. They seem to be trying to stack as many people on top of each other as they can, without providing even the infrastructure that was supposed to support a smaller population.

The brochure gives no reasons at all for the proposed changes. One is therefore left to speculate that they are going to try and squeeze as much money out of the development as they can, while cynically avoiding their responsibilities to provide services and a quality environment.

This change therefore provides no benefits whatsoever to people who live here at the moment. If they stopped building today, it would be no loss to locals (apart from the small stretch of riverside that is still closed). Nothing in this proposed change gives us any reason to support it, and plenty of reasons to oppose it. So I hope people will go to the meetings and make their feelings known to the developers and to the council who will be considering this application.

Actually, I have had a communication from what I believe to be the developers, London and Regional Properties, who now call Lovells ‘Greenwich Wharf’ (totally annihilating any sense of history) confirming the dates of the consultation:

Consultation is open on that most depressing of things, the change of use from a good old fashioned pub to a two bed flat If the link for the planning application to turn the Morden Arms from public to private use doesn’t open, you can just go to Greenwich Council’s planning page and put ‘Morden Arms’ into the search.

I would be even more delighted for local cartoonist Banx if I knew what a ‘pocket cartoonist’ actually was (I’m assuming really small…) but hooray anyway for his being awarded the honour for a second time by the Cartoon Art Trust.

Of course anyone who doens’t know that he also designs the annual Christmas cards for Meridian Primary School must be living on another planet – I’ve never known a publicity machine like it – but hey – it’s all for a good cause and this year they have a Paralympic theme.

In case you’re zooming in from Planet Tharg, and you don’t already have yours, they’re available Posted in Art | Comments Off

You know this time last year the word ‘Food Bank’ hadn’t really entered my consciousness. When Phantom Ex-Pat Benedict created the Advent Flags over in Toronto, in the same spirit as the St Alfege Advent Windows (hugely, hugely popular – I notice they’re all over the country this year) to help fund the Daily Bread scheme, it never occurred to me that Greenwich might be getting a food bank of its own within the year.

Capability Bowes told me that he read in Metro that there was one being set up – he couldn’t find a link and when I tried to find one the paper’s website crashed my computer twice so I don’t recommend it, but I’d be interested to know about it. He tells me that there is already one at Avery Hill and that when he went along to drop off some donations he found himself quite choked. I can believe that. What is this world coming to that these things are necessary.

If anyone tells me about the Greenwich one, I will find a way of posting it.

Meanwhile, across the pond, Benedict and Co. are upping the ante this year and instead of the traditional 24 advent openings, they have 32 – taking in the whole of December and the 1st January. The picture at the top is Number 1, by Erwin Buck, you can follow all of the artistic offerings here and, if you’re particularly taken with any of them even buy one at the auction at the end.

Folks, Real Life is getting in the way of posting much just now so for the foreseeable future updating will be quite intermittent. There will be occasional flurries of posts of things I think you need to know – today is one of those days. I shall also updtate Parish News today so if you have events etc. you want to tell me about, now’s the time.

I promise I have some absolute doozies for you when I’m able to post again. Thank you so much to everyone who’s sending me such great stuff – it’s all in my pile of ‘stuff to do’ – I’m looking forward to sharing it.